Many razors for wet shaving on the market today have one or more razor blades (with many having three to six razor blades) within a razor cartridge which is operatively coupled to a handle, some razors being disposable and some razors having a reusable handle. Razor cartridges having multiple blades are described, for instance, in US Patent Publication No. 2005/0039337A1 published on Feb. 24, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,617,607, and one such razor cartridge has been commercialized as the five bladed Fusion™ Razor by The Gillette Company.
While multiple blades provide an improved close shave, generally some performance issues may still arise. Firstly, some discomfort may be realized by users during shaving. Secondly, shaving is still a relatively slow and inefficient process due to missed hairs and the difficulty in shaving problem areas such as the neck. Many shavers discern a substantial amount of missed hairs (e.g., hairs which are not cut at all or hairs that are not cut close to the skin or at the skin line) despite the bulk of hairs being cut.
In addition, it has been shown that some areas (e.g., neck, chin, and/or face) are particularly hard to shave. These areas generally have low-lying hairs that are often oriented in different directions. These low-lying hairs may be close, flat, or flush against the skin. In many instances, the user has to adopt different shaving techniques during a single shave in order to cut the various different types of hair.
As illustrated in FIG. 1A, a blade 2 will cut hair most cleanly when the blade edge 4 penetrates a hair at an angle substantially perpendicular to its direction of growth. In typical cartridges, where blades 2 are positioned at an angle of about 21° to a plane tangential to skin contact points at the front and rear of a cartridge (typically the guard and cap), this is achieved when a person shaves with the grain (i.e. in the direction of growth). Shaving with the grain is generally considered to be more comfortable than shaving against the grain (i.e. against the direction of growth). However, there is a chance when shaving with the grain that some hairs will be missed, particularly those that are low-lying or growing in a sub-optimal direction. Accordingly, some users choose to additionally shave against the grain as illustrated in FIG. 1B. Shaving against the grain enables low lying hairs to be scooped up by the blades and repositioned for effective cutting. However, when a person shaves against the grain with a cartridge as described above, the hair is pushed back and rotated against its direction of growth until it is positioned at an angle where the blade edge can penetrate the hair—for example, when the blade is substantially perpendicular to the hair. As the hair is rotated, it causes skin 6 behind the hair to bulge. Thus, once the blade edge has cut the hair, there is a chance that the blade edge will go on to penetrate the skin bulge behind the hair, causing pain and irritation.
One prior art reference, entitled Inter-Blade Guard and Method of manufacturing Same, Ser. No. 11/150,744 filed on Jun. 10, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,681,314, attempts to improve comfort by reducing skin bulge in front of a blade by providing inter-blade guard elements disposed on each individual blade. However, the benefit derived from these interblade elements applies when shaving with the grain only. Accordingly, no consideration is given to the different shaving habits a user may employ during a single shave.
Thus, there is still a need to improve skin and hair management (e.g., comfort and efficiency) in razor cartridges while maintaining or improving shaving attributes such as closeness.